Executivemeetingminutes
IEEE Daytona Section
Executive Committee
Meeting
4:30 PM – 6:00 PM
October 18, 2007
Conference Room LB134
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
Daytona Beach, Florida
- Call to Order: The meeting was called to order at 4:30 PM by
the Section Chairman Charles Husbands. Attending
the meeting were: Charles Husbands, Roger
Grubic, Tracy Wichmann, Ron Gedney, Dr. Thomas Yang, Dr. Jianhaua Liu,
and Dr. Hugh Ward.
- Treasurer’s Report: Tracy Wichman the Section Treasurer presented
the Treasurer’s Financial Report through the end of September 2007. Tracy
indicated that the Section is solvent and that the funds and
expenditures are on-target. A discussion
occurred on the Section’s funding to the ERAU Student Branch for the
design and development of the robotic entry for SouteastCon 2008. A motion was made to cap the expenditures for
this activity at $1500. The Executive
Committee voted approval of this level of funding for this project.
- Small Radio Telescope
Project: Dr. Ward who is the principal
investigator on the proposed SRT Project indicated that because of
funding concerns in the Volusia County School System his employment
with the Seabreeze
High School
will probably not be extended beyond his projected retirement date of
December 2008. He indicated that he would like to remain as the
principal investigator on the Project but would like to propose that
the hardware procured for the project is assigned to the IEEE Daytona
Section rather than Seabreeze
High School. The Executive Committee agreeded with Dr.
Ward’s decision and requested Ron Gedney our Life Member Chairman to
inform the IEEE Life Member Foundation of our desired change in venue
for the SRT, in the LM Foundation proposal.
- Slate of Section Officers
for 2008: A proposal was made at the
last Section Meeting to ask the existing officers to extend their term
of office through 2008. A letter was sent
to each of the current officers to determine if they wanted to stay in
their current post through 2008. Each of
the officers indicated that they would be happy to continue in their
current position. The exception was Roger
Grubic who asked that another member be selected to take his position
as Membership Chairman. The officers at
the Executive Committee Meeting voted to approve the existing officers
as candidates for IEEE Daytona Section officers for 2008. This slate will be presented at the
October Section Meeting. Additional
nominations will be accepted by letter between the October and November
Meetings. Nominations will also be accepted from the floor at the
November Meeting and the slate will be voted on at that meeting.
- Life Member Trip: It was indicated that on additional Life
Member Meeting is necessary before the end of 2007.
Two options were presented by the LM Chair.
One would be a LM/Student Roundtable sometime before the end
of the year. The other choice would be a
LM trip to meet with Dr. Riggs of the Physics Department at Stetson in
Deland. Stetson currently has a SRT of the
type we are seeking funds for from the LM Foundation.
It would be nice to get an opportunity to speak with Dr.
Riggs and discuss some of the applications and problems that they might
have encountered in assembling and calibrating their SRT.
Charlie Husbands said that he would contact Dr. Riggs and
attempt to set up a visit before the end of the year.
Perhaps in November. Ron Gedney
will coordinate notifying the Life Members of the trip.
- Membership Discussion: Roger Grubic our Membership Chairman has been closely monitoring the membership picture in
the Section. The problems with membership
are rather straightforward; there is little Electrical Engineering
Industry in the Daytona area to draw from. One
way to help this problem is to increase the current IEEE members in the
area who are inactive in Section activities. One
way is through developing affinity groups that might closer meet their
technical needs than the general programs presented by the Section. This approach might include personal calls to
inactive meetings, or notifying them personally by email. A second approach is to periodically have
a well planned technical lecture at ERAU in the early evening, to try
to draw students from the University and working engineers that can’t
stay in the city for an evening meeting, or may have problems driving
after dark. It appears to the chairman
that it is easier to try to keep a current member active than have them
drop off the rolls and recruit their replacement.
- Meeting Dates: We reviewed the proposed Section Meeting dates
for first half of next year. The currently
planned events and dates are:
- November 29, 2007 - Dr. Mark Law,
"From Macro to Micro to Nano Electronics"
- January 24,
2008 - Dr.
Danplant, "Neural Networks Applied to Finance"
- February 28, 2008 –
Date Currently Open
- March 27,
2008 - Dr. Yvan Fernanoez, "Spitzer
Telescope Program"
- April
24, 2008 – Date Reserved for Student
Branch Presentation
We just have to insure that we have
correlated the meeting dates with the Halifax River Yacht Club.
- Computer Society Chapter
Membership: Dr. Wilson has been
working on organizing a Computer Society Chapter in Daytona. This Chapter will be an affiliate to the
Daytona IEEE Section. Dr. Wilson has
signed up ten of the twelve required charter members and feels that he
should have the process well in hand by the beginning of the year.
- Student Chapter Status: Dr. Liu reported on the current status of the
Student Chapter at ERAU. They are
organized and have started to plan for the Robotic Challenge in Huntsville, AL this spring.
Dr. Liu indicated that many of the parts purchased last year
can be reused this year so the funding level set by the Section should
not be a problem. There was some concern
about communications between the Student Branch and the Section. Their
website has not been updated since March 2006, and I don’t believe the
Section has a list of the current student officers.
A suggestion was made to help them with a small stipend to
maintain their website, but no action was taken on this action.
- Adjournment:
The meeting was adjourned at 6:00 PM.
Charles
Husbands
Chairman,
Daytona IEEE Section
chusbands@ieee.org
386.760. 7163